A pair of light-colored horses stands harnessed to an enclosed streetcar on rails in an unpaved street. Two men occupy the front platform, with passengers visible through the windows. Behind them, the Royal Hotel is a two-story brick building with segmental-arched window openings and a patterned cornice. A large tree partly conceals its porch, while a utility pole rises near the building’s corner.
White hand-lettering reproduced along the lower edge of the photograph reads “5758 ROYAL HOTEL. REDCLOUD. NEBR.” The caption identifies both the building and the Nebraska town. The divided postcard back credits manufacture to M. L. Zercher Book and Stationery Co., Topeka, Kansas, and carries the printed assurance “THIS IS A GENUINE PHOTO.” No individual photographer or date is named.
A sideways pencil message on the reverse reads “Answer soon / Good by / Love to all / from L. Sherman / & wife.” A separate pencil stock notation appears along the upper margin. There is no stamp, postmark, or delivery address.
- Title on card
- 5758 ROYAL HOTEL. REDCLOUD. NEBR. (inscribed)
- Medium
- RPPC
- Subject
- Nebraska, Outdoor Scene, Railroad
- Dimensions
- 5.55 × 3.52 in (141.0 × 89.5 mm)
- Condition
- Two green ink spots on the reverse and a small crease in the lower right blank border of the front. The photograph is otherwise clean, and the card appears sound.
- Catalogue no.
- MRPPC3465
Catalogue details
Location
Royal Hotel, East 4th Avenue near Elm Street, Red Cloud, Nebraska · Red Cloud, Nebraska, United States
Photographed subject · Street / district · 70% confidence
Caption names the Royal Hotel, Red Cloud. Walk Red Cloud places Oatman’s brick Royal Hotel (opened Nov. 1901) on the former Gardner House site, half a block west of the Valley House, with Elm Street at the next corner east (E 4th Ave & Elm). Pinned mid-block on East 4th Avenue just west of Elm; which side of the street is not confirmed.
Source: Card caption + Walk Red Cloud, “Hotel Royal – Part 1”
